CBS’ coverage of the final round of golf’s PGA Championship and the 15th anniversary special of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” were last week’s only prime-time programming to average more than 5 million viewers.
The prime-time portion of Sunday’s final round averaged 6.328 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday. CBS’ six hours, seven minutes of final-round coverage averaged 5.15 million viewers, 3% more than the 5.15-million average for the final round in 2019.
The coverage was not considered an official prime-time program because most it aired before the start of prime time. However, the prime-time portion is included in CBS’ weekly average of 3.67 million, its most since the week of June 8-14 when it averaged 3.84 million viewers.
“America’s Got Talent” was officially the most-watched program for the eighth time in the 11 weeks of television’s summer season, averaging 6.159 million viewers, 36% less than the 9.66-million average for the last of four “Judge Cuts” episodes that aired in the corresponding week last season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
There were two programs in the corresponding week one year ago to average more than 5 million viewers. The other was “60 Minutes,” which averaged 6.763 million viewers.
A rerun of CBS’ action drama “NCIS” was second last week, averaging 4.913 million.
Sunday’s edition of “60 Minutes,” whose two segments were both reruns, averaged 4.136 million viewers, fifth among prime-time broadcast and cable programs between Aug. 3 and Sunday. The CBS News magazine began two hours, seven minutes later than usual in the Eastern and Central time zones.
Viewership was 42% less than the previous week’s edition, which averaged 7.132 million viewers to finish first for the week.
The two-hour season premiere of “Big Brother,” the first in its 22-season history to include the revealing of the cast and being broadcast live in the Eastern and Central time zones, finished first in its Wednesday 9-11 p.m. time slot, averaging 3.661 million viewers, 20th for the week.
Viewership was up 44.8% from CBS’ programming in the Wednesday time slot a week earlier, reruns of “The Price Is Right Primetime Special: Big Brother Edition” that averaged 2.995 million and “SEAL Team” that averaged 2.061 million.
The season’s second “Big Brother” episode, won its Sunday 10-11 p.m. time slot, averaging 2.954 million viewers, 43rd for the week.
With boosts from the “Big Brother” premiere and Saturday’s third-round coverage of the PGA Championship CBS averaged 3.67 million viewers,
The victory was CBS’ fifth in a row, 23nd in 28 weeks and 28th in the 46-week-old 2019-20 season.
Fox News Channel was second, averaging 3.092 million viewers, followed by NBC, which averaged 2.72 million, and ABC, which averaged 2.31 million.
Fox was fourth among the broadcast networks and seventh overall, averaging 1.31 million viewers for its 16 hours, 29 minutes of programming.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the 29th consecutive week, averaging 3.092 million viewers. It had each of the week’s six most-watched cable programs and nine of the top 10 — five editions of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and four of “Hannity.”
The week’s most-watched cable program was the Aug. 3 edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which averaged 4.076 million viewers, sixth overall. The overall Top 10 included two episodes each of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity.”
MSNBC was second among cable networks for the ninth consecutive week, averaging 1.975 million viewers. CNN was third for the ninth consecutive week, averaging 1.345 million.
An episode of the Univision telenovela “Te doy la vida,” was the most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program for the third consecutive week, with the Monday episode averaging 2.124 million viewers, 43rd among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 36th consecutive week and 38th time in 39 weeks, averaging 1.32 million viewers.
Telemundo was second, averaging 930,000 viewers, followed by UniMas, which averaged 340,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 180,000 and Azteca America which averaged 40,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 36th consecutive week, the 87th time in 88 weeks and the 139th time in 141 weeks, averaging 8.438 million viewers.
“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.458 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” which averaged 5.156 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were the 15th anniversary special for NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; reruns of CBS’ “NCIS,” ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Celebrity Family Feud,” and CBS’ “60 Minutes”; the Monday and Friday editions of Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and the Wednesday and Tuesday editions of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.”